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1/30/2014

But what of the children...

So I shared a bit earlier this week
about a writing contest I’ve entered. In my entry a thief has kidnapped the
general’s children and instead of acting on his first impulse, Caligulus seeks
wisdom from the Table of Elders about the best way to address the situation.

But what of the children? Here’s a
little bonus scene that I cut out of my submission that I thought you might
enjoy.

Alexander shifted his position slightly trying to peak
through a crack between planks in the solid oak door. He rapped on it twice, listening to the heavy thunk,
thunk sound his knuckles made as they made contact with the door. He traced the
square outline of the tiny opening they’d used to pass his breakfast through an
hour ago. He was afraid of what was on the other side of that door. He knew he
shouldn’t be, but he couldn’t help it.

He turned his attention back to the slumbering form that
shared his cell. She looked so tiny there, lying on a pile of hay like a little
field mouse. But he wasn’t fooled. His little sister Ellery was anything but a
tiny rodent, all cowering and scared. She might be small for her age, but she
had enough personality to fill ten stadiums. Maybe twenty. The people who
roamed the hallways were wise to keep a strong lock on that door; lest his
sister escape and give them a piece of her mind.

He smiled to himself as he imagined the moment where his
sister finally came face to face with her captors. How her fury would lick at
them like a flame left unchecked; blistering their eyelids and singeing loose
strands of hair.

But if she wasn’t afraid of them, then he certainly wasn’t
either. He was older after all. Not much older, but enough. Enough to make him
feel like he needed to watch over her. Keep her from killing herself with all
her stupid stunts.

Boy she’d gotten them in deep this time, hadn’t she? Up to
their necks in who knew what? He had no idea how they’d gotten themselves
locked up, or where they even were. Aside from being on the wrong side of a
locked jail cell door, that part was a bit obvious.